Origin Forensics LLD -- Jarrod Carter

Spokane-North’s own Super Heroes have quickly turned a fun dare into serious money to help Rotary International’s Polio Plus campaign.

When District 5080 Gov. Jerri Anderson of Sandpoint recently asked for clubs to help the fight against polio, club President-elect Lenore Romney and Secretary Melinda Keberle came up with a novel quick campaign just in time for World Polio Day, Oct. 24.

Lenore asked if members would contribute $1,000 if Melinda would wear her “Super Hero” costume to the Oct. 30 meeting. Faster than a speeding bullet, club members quickly pledged $1,150 for the event.

$4,300 with a double match from the Gates Foundation Rotary-Polio Plus fund.

Total: $6,450

Way to go Super Hero! Way to go Landen, Lenore and everyone who contributed pledges!

Melinda and Landen were rewarded with a certificate from Brain Freeze Creamery. And club President Chad Haverkamp said, “This was a great example of the fun and what we can do in this club.”

Briefly:

See our new location: Club members, spouses and prospective members will get together Wednesday, Nov. 8, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., at Nectar Wine & Beer shop in Kendall Yards to view our club’s new meeting location and meet owner Josh White. Light snacks will be provided; members and guests will pay for their own beverages. Nectar is located at 1331 W. Summit Parkway. The official move is Jan. 8. The Lincoln Center is turning into a church after the calendar year.

Holiday time: Holmes coordinators, Sandy Fink and Daria Brown, said gift tags for needy students and families will be available at the club’s Nov. 6 meeting. Following a several years’ tradition of providing Christmas gifts for Holmes families, Sandy said, “We hope people can take two or three tags each.”

Accident analyzers use drones and more

For a minor fender-dent car accident, a cell phone camera might suffice. But detailed vehicle accident analysis requires special tools and special technicians.

Trying to get the most possible data about vehicle accidents is the goal of Origin Forensics LLD.

The tools of the trade include aerial drones, 3D laser scanners and special hi-res digital video cameras.

Detailing the methods for the Oct. 30 club luncheon was Jarrod Carter, a WSU grad and PhD. mechanical engineer from the University of Washington. Joining Carter was Erin Foss, Origin’s director of operations. The five-member firm is located in Liberty Lake, but has had clients from Alaska to Florida.

Carter, the team leader, showed a video of one sedan colliding, “t-bone” style, into another sedan. The crash, which Carter drove himself, was demonstrated at a Spokane Fairgrounds parking lot. Aerial views, panoramic shots and millions of pin-point details showed the scope of data available.

Carter stressed the importance of retrieving the data as quickly as possible to preserve the scene. In one Wisconsin case, he said, by the time his firm was contacted, the accident on the road had been repaved.

He said another vital element is preserving each “flight recorder” style “little box” -- vehicle data which shows acceleration and deceleration rates, air bag deployment, whether seat belts had been used, what the air pressure was on the tires and an array of other technical arrays of data. Carter said 20 to 25 seconds of data can show an incredible amount of pertinent data.

Carter got involved during a summer at WSU with forensic analyst John Habberstad, who in turn worked with James Collins, a pioneer of the accident reconstruction methods.

His talk is the “New Era in Rapid Response and Collection.” His theses include topics like “Tolerance of Cervical Spine to Eccentric Axial Compression.” But he simplifies things by saying the data shows “what happens to vehicles and the people inside.”